'I found the contacts': Former cheerleader pleading guilty to terror charges painted as main plotter
A former cheerleader and honour student from Mississippi will plead to guilty terrorism charges after she allegedly led a plot to travel to join ISIS with her fiancé.
Jaelyn Young, 20, plans to plead guilty in a US federal court to charges of conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organisation.
She face up to 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime probation, CBS reports.
Her fiance, Muhammad Dakhlalla, pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier in March, with prosecutors painting his fiancé as leading the plot.
According to prosecutors, Ms Young admitted her guilt last August in her farewell letter left for her family.
"I found the contacts, made arrangements, planned the departure," prosecutors allege she wrote.
"I am guilty of what you soon will find out."
The couple were planning to travel to Syria, using their honeymoon as a cover.
They were caught after making contact with undercover federal agents, seeking help online to travel to join the terror group.
Prior to her arrest, Ms Young was a second year chemistry student at Mississippi State University.
The former high school cheerleader, honour student and homecoming maid is the daughter of a school administrator and a police officer who has also served in the Navy reserve.
MERICA! :dad prepping for his leave next year and has navy gear everywhere! :) #gopops http://t.co/PM4icaxt
— Jaelyn Young (@JaelynxYoung) November 24, 2012
Mr Dakhlalla, the youngest of three sons of a leading figure in the Starkville Muslim community, graduated Mississippi State in 2011 with a degree in psychology.
He was preparing to start a graduate degree at the time of his arrest.
Ms Young has been portrayed as a Lady Macbeth in papers regarding her fiancé's plea, with their farewell letters explaining, "they would never be back, with Young acknowledging her role as the planner of the expedition and that Dakhlalla was going as her companion of his own free will".
She was already looking to convert to Islam by the time she met Mr Dakhlalla in 2014 and started wearing a burqa around March last year.
She become radicalised after watching Islamic State videos, seeing ISIS fighters as "liberators" and complained about the treatment of Muslims in the US and UK, prosecutors said.
According to prosecutors Ms Young was elated by a video showing militants throwing a young gay man from a building and approved of the shooting of five military personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee in July last year.
"After her conversion, Young distanced herself from family and friends and felt spending time with non-Muslims would be a bad influence," prosecutors wrote in Mr Dakhlalla's plea.
"Young continually asked Dakhlalla when they were going to join (the Islamic State group) and began to express hatred for the U.S. government and to express support for the implementation of Sharia law in the United States," they added.
It is not clear when Ms Young's fascination with ISIS began, but her Twitter account otherwise depicts the life of typical teen girl, talking about friends, school and playing X-Box with her father.
Her last tweet was sent on January 28, 2013.
Norther-if you go >>>>>
— Jaelyn Young (@JaelynxYoung) January 27, 2013
News break – March 31
